Eurofurence Community > General Discussion
Official Statement Regarding the Policy Debate on Twitter
Dhary Montecore:
--- Quote from: Ralphie Raccoon on 10.06.2015, 23:34:30 ---
--- Quote from: Dhary Montecore on 10.06.2015, 22:29:07 ---As Chief of Security for ConFuzlled I have to state that this is NOT true and IF it ever happened it was overlooked by my team by accident.
--- End quote ---
It was while the Con was at the Britannia, so some years ago. It was also on the last day after the closing ceremony, but security were still present. They had a little get together near the nightclub. It may have been before your time, I don't know when you joined. There were sleepers and "kiddie" clothes, and a few pacis around necks. No exposed diapers, as you'd expect. Quite discreet, really. Trust me, it happened, as a couple of them are good friends of mine. Nobody seemed bothered. Personally I don't think such things are an issue, after all, I've seen worse things at fancy dress parties in nightclubs(!), but of course I don't make the rules.
And Thankyou for accepting my suggestion! At least then if anything, if someone wears something specific that is banned you have something to cite that will prevent a dispute. Saves a whole lot of bother if you can just point to a list! :)
--- End quote ---
You're most welcome! It is not that we don't see the issue. The Problem is, that this topic is very emotionally charged on both sides. Things will be rectified, promise. But this does only work in a constructive dialog. Suggestions like yours are highly valuable and always help to improve things for everyone instead of trying to gain personal benefits. So thank you again!
Regarding ConFuzzled: In this case you are absolutely right. I took over after the Britannia-Years and I reworked the CoC only then. :3
AliothFox:
--- Quote from: Dhary Montecore on 10.06.2015, 23:44:35 ---
--- Quote from: AliothFox on 10.06.2015, 23:18:25 ---And you continue to call the victims the "agitators of the drama." This view only reinforces the lack of professionalism. I'm not here to stir up drama. I'm here to address legitimate grievances. If I were to tweet on my timeline in a public way (yes, the tweets in question were public - the account in question has SINCE been made private, but it wasn't at the time) about my employers/organizers, I would be relieved of my responsibilities, and rightfully so. If I were to wish death on another person in such a public way, I would be fired/relieved from any position I held - and rightfully so. Anything less is tacit endorsement of that position.
--- End quote ---
You are measuring a volunteer organisation by commercial standards. This does not work. And yes, I am talking about the agitators. Those that sparked the entire drama by very personal and insulting tweets. I do NOT talk about the babyfur community or those (more than 80%) of the participants of the conversations that argued in a calm and respectable manner. This entire escalation is based on a few known agitators and the very emotional and unprofessional response they got. Our response is not to be excused but so are the original tweets.
Again, we are a volunteer organisation, we are NOT paid, we pay ourselves. So please do not try to force a convention organisation into a commercial companies frame.
--- End quote ---
I don't feel like this discussion is likely to be productive any further. You are blaming "known agitators" while defending/ignoring the larger issue at hand. A forced apology is no apology. At this point, the damage is done, as the babyfur community (which accounts for a much larger percentage of the furry fandom than you seem to be aware of) will likely encourage its members and their friends to simply not go. Time will tell.
Cheetah:
(Edit: This took a long time to write, so while I typed this, about 10 other replies have been posted. That means, this reply is completely ignorant of them. Please keep that in mind when reading.)
--- Quote from: AliothFox on 10.06.2015, 22:45:38 ---The tweet in question said, "Go suffocate yourself with a diaper," followed by epithets that I won't repeat here out of politeness. Now, I think (I HOPE) everyone here can agree that there is no possible context that would make such a statement acceptable, under any circumstances.
--- End quote ---
Well, the tweet he responded to said "You're using retarded shit logic that just because you are outside of Germany, you haven't registerd for EF, fucking idiot", and was subsequently called a Nazi.
I hope you can agree that there is also no possible context that would make such a statement acceptable?
Really, it's a moot point to score the insults and then declare a winner and a loser. Doco has no representative function within the staff, and he was personally attacked on his personal account, it's his own right to free speech. Yes, he got a stern talk, because we really did not enjoy having to cope with the extra provocation that caused, but you can't go and privately insult volunteers, and then expect them to react like salespeople. We disagree with what he said, we apologized as an organisation, but we're not going to enact a sacrificial ritual on the basis that the mob demands blood. Figuratively speaking, of course.
What I find more embarassing, and what I'm way more sorry for is what happened on our official twitter account. That's a place where you should be able to expect factual, professional and level headed answers, and that is the part that I feel responsible for. As you might have read in our declaration above, twitter responsibilities and policies will change so that won't happen again.
--- Quote ---The official response is very vague. Re-writing social media guidelines and re-assigning responsibilities are not particularly clear. You said you were "re-assigning responsibilities." Can you clarify what this means?
--- End quote ---
It means that different people will handle the twitter account than before, there will be a hierarchy, and a clear policy how we will communicate via twitter.The current draft of the new policy provides for a new twitter PR team lead, a procedure how the different departments can provide content to be posted, and formal communication guidelines - like author tags, and rules such as that the account will be for informative purposes only, and will not take part in discussions. It does not get more concrete than that, because it takes a few days to organize this, and also to find new volunteers for the new positions.
--- Quote ---Now, the other matter that I'm concerned about is the fact that EF seems to have taken the position of, "We can only address the issues that happened on EF's official channel."
--- End quote ---
First of all, we have about 200 volunteers, and I can not expect them to always act in a representative way, especially not when they are personally being attacked. Each of them are entitled to their own opinions. The board of directors and maybe the senior staff are an exception of that. That's why it makes a difference whether doco says something on twitter, or I say something on twitter.
But, to use your own way of reasoning, you seem to have taken the position of, "They made a mistake, and that means they are not allowed to defend themselves against any kind of retaliation."
Look, if you want to criticise me personally, then please take it to me personally and we can talk about it. Or address the Organisation that I am representing. That is fine. What people however did was, take screenshots from pretty much everything I said on my protected private account, put them on caricatures, and made them go viral with THEIR own spin attached to it.
When I said, "If crapping your pants in public is a requirement for you we have a conflict of interest", that is literally what I wanted to say. (It implies, that if it is not a requirement, we do not have a conflict of interest, by the way.)
I was subtweeting as a reaction to someone complaining about a (non-existing) "diaper ban" and how EF would be totally ruined for him if he wasn't allowed to wear them in public. And since he clearly implied a fetish background, and not a medical one, I was quite angry. First of all because wearing a diaper is only a problem when it's "blatant display", and the rules say so quite prominently. And secondly because, if you don't have a medical condition, why ELSE would you want to wear one in public?
Some people apparently WANTED to spin that into "Cheetah thinks, all babyfurs crap their pants in public", and so they did. Which I, by the way, totally clarified in subsequent tweets, which mysteriously never made it into any screenshots.
A lot of the outrage is fabricated, and I know exactly by whom.
I know what I said was totally not politically correct, and if I had know what I would cause, I wouldn't have tweeted it.
I am sorry for everyone who I unintentionally offended by it.
--- Quote ---Have the responsible parties been relieved of their duties?
--- End quote ---
If you want to have me relieved from my duties, you'll have to convince the members of the Eurofurence e.V. (the legal entity behind Eurofurence) to call for an extraordinary general meeting, and vote for the removal of their chairman. Everyone can become a member. You, too. I dare you to do it. Take responsibility, and in return you get the power to change. Despite all mistakes I made, the last thing I will do is give in to an angry mob. Sorry, but not sorry.
We could let doco go. But what would that change. It would be just a meaningless ritual. He's already not in a representative position, so that would not change. And the only two jobs we could let him go from are posting travel information tweets once a month, and helping sort badges behind the reg counter. On the other hand he's been in our team for 18 years. You don't fire someone who's been with you for so long, and who is generally a good person. We're going to handle this internally. You will have to trust us on this one.
AliothFox:
As I said, I did not come here to start drama. I came here to clarify why people were upset, and to seek a redress for it. I was denied that redress, so at this point, it is out of my hands. If the things I've said before have not made matters clear, I see no sense in repeating myself. If you would like to put some sort of "spin" on that, that's your prerogative.
At this point, I will not be attending EF in the future, and I will be encouraging others - babyfur and non-babyfur - to do the same. Your responses to my points have made some things clearer - and I sincerely thank you for that - while leaving others unaddressed. I'm not some sort of appointed representative for the babyfur community; I'm just trying to help EF understand the reasons why people are upset, which I have apparently failed to do.
Cheetah:
(To all staffers feeling the urge to flame here: I appreciate your loyalty, but you're not helping the cause right now. Moderation is in effect.)
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